The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-11-18
Paul says.
The whole creatioa rroaneth.

| lark, ana the canary, ana tue plover s0me-
times sing SO sweetly thst tseir notes
have been written ont in musical nota-
ton. and it is found that the cuckoo sings in
the key OF d, and that the cormorant is =
basso in the winged choir, yet sportsmen's
gun and the autumnal blast often leave
them rufflsd and bleeding, or dead in
meadow or forest. Paul was right, for the
groan in nature downs out the prime
doune of the sky.
Tartini, the great musical composer,
| dreamed one night that he made a con-
tract with Satan, the latter to be ever in
the composers service. But one night he
| handed to Satin violin, on which Dia-
bolus played such sweet music that the
composer was awakened to the emotion
| and tried to reproduce the sounds, and
therefrom was written Tartini's most
famous piece, entitled the "Dev:'s
Sonata" a dream ingenious but faulty,
for all melody descends from Heaven, and
only discords ascend from hell. All
hatreds, feuds, controversies, back
billings and reveuges are the DEVILS
sonata, are diabolic fugue, are de-
moniac phantasy, are grand march of
doom, are allegro of perdition.
But il in this world things in general
are out Of tune to our frail ear, how much
more so to ears angelic and deific. 1t
takes skilled artist fully to appreciate
disagreement of sound. Many have no
capacity to detect defect of musical ex-
ecution, and, though there was in one
bar as many Offenses against harmony as
could crowd in between the lower F of the
bass and the higher g of the soprano, it
would give them no discomfort, while on
the forehead of the educated artist beads
of Precipitation would stand out as a re.
suit of the narrowing dissonance. While
an amateur was performing on a piano
and had just struck the wrong chord,
John Sebastian Bach, the immortal COM
poser, entered the room, and the amateur
rose in embarrassment, and Bach rushed
past the host, who stepped forward to
greet him, and before the keyboard had
stopped vibrating, put his adroit hand
upon the keys changed the painful in
harmony into glorious cadence. Then
Bach turned and gave salutation to the
host who had invited him.
But the worst of all dscords is moral
discord If society and the world are
plainly discordant to imperfect man.
what must they be to a perfect God?
People try to define what sin is. 1t seems
to me that sin is getting out of harmony
with God, disagreement with His hoi-
ness, with His dignity. with His love. with
His commands; our will c'ashiug with His
will. the finite dashing the infinite, the
frail against the pu:ssnnt, the created
against the Creator. If thousand mu.
sicians, with flute, and cornet-a.piston.
and trumpet, and violoncello, and haut-
boy, and trombone. and all the wind and
stringed instruments that ever gathered
in Dusseldorf jubilee should resolve that
they would play out of tune, and put con.
cord to the rack, and make the place wild
with shrieking. and grating and rasping
sounds, they could not make such a pam
demonium as that which RACES i'm a sinful
soul when God listens to the play of its
thoughts. passions and emotions-discord,
lifelong discord, maddening discord. The
world pays more for discord than it does
for consonance. High prices have been
paid for music. One man gave 1925 to
hear the Swedish songstress in New York,
and another 1926 to hear her in Boston,
and another $3.50 to hear her in Provi-
dence. Fabulous prices have been paid
for sweet sounds, but far more has been
paid for discord. The Crimenn war cost
81, 700, O0,. 900. and our American civil war
over $500, O0O, 900. and the war debts Of
professed Christian nations are about $l5,.
O00,0O0,OO0. The world pays for this red
ticket, which admits it to the saturnalia of
broken bones, and death agonies, and de-
stroyed cities, and plowed graves, and
crushed hearts, any amount of money
Satan asks. Discord! Discord!
But have to tell you that the song that
the morning stars sang together at the
laying of ths worlds cornerstone il to be
again. Mozart's greatest over.
ture was composed one night when he
was several times overpowered with
sleep, and artists say they can tell
the places in the music where he was
falling asleep. and the places where he
awakened. So the overture of the morn.
ing stars, spoken of in my text. has been
asleep, but 10 will awaken and be more
grandly rendered by the evening stars Of
the worlds existence than bv the morn
ing stars, and the vespers will be sweeter
than the mathis. The work Of all good
men and women, and OF all good churches,
and all reform associations, is to bring the
race back TO the original harmony. The
rebellious heart to be attuned, social life
to be attuned, commercial ethics to he at.
tuned, internationally to he attuned,
to be attuned. But by what
force and in what way!
In olden times the choristers had tun.
ing.fork with two prongs, and they would
strike it on the back of pew or music.rack,
and put it to the ear, and then start the
tune, and all the other voices would Join.
In modern orchestra the leader has
instrument. rightly attuned,
and he sounds that, and all the other per.
formers turn the keys Of their in
struments to make them respond,
and sound the bow over the string, and
listen, and sound out over again, until all
the keys are screwed to concert pitch, and
the discords melt into one great sym.
phony, and the curtain hoists, and the
baton taps, and audiences are raptured
with Schumann's "Paradise and the |
Peril" or Rossini's ''Stabat Mater" or
Bach's "Magnificat" in D, or Gounod's
Redemption"
Now our world can never be attuned
by an imperfect instrument. Even Gre.
mona would not do. Heaven has ordained
The only instrument. and it is made ont of
The wood Of the cross, and the voices,
cantatrices of the first Christmas night,
when Heaven serenaded the earth with:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will to men.
Lest we start too far of and get lost in
we had better begin with
our own hearts and life in
harmony with the eternal Christ Oh. for
His almighty spirit to attune IA, to chord
our life with His life, and bring us into
unison with all that is pure and self sac.
rificing and heavenly. The strings of |
BUR nature are all broken and twisted, and
he bow is SO slack it can not evoke any
hing melifluous. The instrument ma de |
Tor Heaven to play on has been roughly |
and struck by influences worldly |